Christine's walking & birds blog

Between two spits reaching like arms into the roadside lochan, four black-throated divers were hanging out together.

    

Sitting in the car, I should have managed better shots, but the "bow waves" in this picture show that, despite their rather stately appearance, the divers were actually on the move the whole time.


This was rather like their post-breeding get-togethers, but I'm not sure if this foursome is two pairs - or a male and three females, or a female and three males! There was certainly no animosity between the birds, but now and again two would come together and "kiss" - and I could never manage a sharp photo when they did.


Further north in another lay-by, I saw a pair of wheatears foraging and wondered if they already had young. While I was wondering, a calling snipe materialised from somewhere and dropped into the long bleached grass, from where it occasionally sent out its chipper call. From yet another lay-by, I watched sand martins hunting up and down the river; two landed on a nearby fence and preened, only flying off when a car whizzed past.


Stopping on the way back to look along fence posts for whinchats (unsuccessfully), I spotted another snipe on the far side of the river.


My second cuckoo of the day was singing from wires, but I got distracted when I spotted a white-tailed sea eagle, miles away, but coming closer. The eagle cruised along the ridge in the distance but eventually disappeared - at which point the "cuckooing" seemed very close. I spun round to see two cuckoos, flying side-by-side, the male still singing and the (presumed) female uttering a different call - not the bubbling call that I've heard only once before, but a rapid, sharper call - more like "wikwikwikwik". They flew right over me but I wasn't quick enough to grab a pic, or to say whether the second bird was male or female. Meanwhile, two more snipe erupted from wet grassy ground and went careering away across the road.

A nice morning - but it's still really cold. In fact, it's the kind of weather that sometimes makes me feel physically sick, with bright sunshine almost too glaring to be pleasant, and an Arctic wind that drops for a while - so that you feel the heat of the sun - and then comes back at you in a sudden gust and chills you to the marrow.